What does Isaiah 24:1 mean?

Chapters 13–23 of Isaiah contained a series of prophecies about the Lord's judgment against various nations. Those judgments were mostly brought about through the Assyrian war machine. They conquered one nation after another, especially those who dared to rebel against them.

Now Isaiah prophecies about a judgment that will impact the entire world at once. Scholars have sometimes referred to chapters 24—27 as the "Apocalypse of Isaiah." The section certainly seems to be set in the end times. In this passage, the Lord judges the world before bringing all the nations under the rule of the Messiah from His throne in Jerusalem.

The chapter begins by declaring that the Lord will one day "empty the earth," or lay it to waste, and make it a wasteland. God will destroy the face of the earth and scatter the people who remain. The root word for "scatter" in Hebrew is puwts. This is the same word used for the dispersal of the earth's population from the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:9). The suggestion here is of mass migrations as people flee from disaster.